Treat the World to the True You & Leave the Tricks Behind

For many people, Halloween is a time of celebrating their true selves—at least subconsciously. Yes, people dress up in costumes to supposedly hide their true identities, but my guess is that more people than not are actually projecting their true identities through the costumes they choose to wear for this one annual evening of let-loose festivities. They take off the Average Joe costume that they were 364 days of the year and put on a costume that better suits who they really believe themselves to be.

There are many men who are Clark Kent by day simply because that was the false-self thrust upon them as they were growing up. Deep down inside they know that their true-self is more of a Superman. The same is true for many women who on this one night get to let their hair down and be more like the J. Lo or Helen Mirren who is daily trapped inside them behind a false Plain Jane façade. They may all think that they’re masquerading as someone opposite of who they really are, but I’d wager that there’s more James Bond or Emma Peel (The Avengers) in the average person than they are willing to accept or acknowledge.

Why is this? Well, it’s all about conditioning. In his book I AM, Howard Falco says “Many people and experiences have influenced the identity programming at the crux of your life,” including parents, siblings, extended family, teachers, ministers, politicians, and entertainment superstars. These and other influences have all played some part in telling us who we “should” be. We accepted many of their false “you should be like this” ideas and then became what we believed we “should” be in order to please these people. In other words, we accepted a false-persona thrust on us from outside ourselves. In doing so, we then failed to look inside ourselves to taste the reality of who we truly are. In many ways we were given an extreme makeover that nicely fit everyone we knew—except us.

Have you ever wanted to go somewhere or do something exciting, but then felt like you just couldn’t go there? I have. I’ve experienced times where my desire to be freely myself was strongly present, but so was the old, massive roadblock: The big warning sign in my fearful little mind that kept flashing  “Keep Out! Off Limits!” I’ve been to parties where I’ve refused to dance, even though I love to dance, just because dancing didn’t suit the dignified or noble false-image that I mistakenly thought gave me value. What I’ve learned is that no false image can give you value, much less life. There isn’t any value to life, and there's certainly little joy,  when you’re uncomfortable being your real self.

Ultimately, we all need to answer this question—offered by Howard Falco-- at some point in our lives: “Do you want to play a role based on your desires or continue to follow a script based on the will and desires of others?” Most of us will say that we want to fashion a life based in our own desires for ourselves, but when push comes to shove, most of us will probably cop-out on our true selves. After all, what will Mom think? How about Dad? What about the people at church or at work? Fear of being rejected for being our true selves opens it’s big, all-consuming mouth and we allow it to swallow us up whole—again and again.

Or do we? Maybe it’s time we thought about us first. After all, when our day comes God isn’t going to ask “Why weren’t you your mother?” or “Why weren’t you Queen Victoria?” God’s going to ask us “Why weren’t you yourself? Why weren’t you true to the person I created you to be?”

So this Halloween put on the costume that suits you best. The one that really isn’t a costume at all. The one that says “This is who I truly am” and wear it proudly. In fact, why wait? Halloween is two months off. Start today and allow your soul to shine!